AKRON, Ohio – One of Northeast Ohio’s most breathtaking holiday events, the Akron Children’s Hospital Holiday Tree Festival, officially kicks off this weekend.
The John S. Knight Center will be filled with nearly 150 ornately decorated christmas trees.
“Every year I think it can’t get any prettier, and it always does,” said Festival Chairperson Mary Leuka.
“The trees are blank when they first come in, and they start decorating to whatever theme they have in mind,” said Leuka.
This year’s themes are wide ranging from nutcrackers to clowns, elves, sports, and Halloween.
They are created by families, by clubs and organizations including Boy Scouts, corporations, and schools.
A tree created by an art class from Green High School inspired by an effort to collect used aluminum cans to raise money to help burn victims.
Another tree donated by the RTA was fashioned out of old buttons.
“One year it was forks and spoons, one year it was denim jeans and things like that one was newspapers, one was bus tickets and that, and this year it’s the buttons,” said Leuka.
Some of the trees are decorated in memory of a loved one.
Some are dedicated to the successful recovery of others including the only tree in the building that is not being sold or raffled, one decorated with the faces of kids who have been in the hospital’s neonatal ICU, and what they look like grown up.
The festival also features a raffle of massive displays on a main stage and 79 creative wreaths.
“The decorators put just as much of their heart into their wreaths as the tree people do in their trees,” said Leuka.
The event was hosted by hospital volunteers with the trees, and all of the decorations and work to create them donated.
The money raised is going back to the hospital.
“So, this is our 43rd year, seven point three million dollars to the hospital last year we raised 330 thousand alone just from this event and all of this was donated to the hospital to benefit our patients and any special projects research, education.” said Vicki Parisi, the Director of Volunteers.
“43 years ago, I think we had about 25 trees that they started with, and now we are up to 159 trees this year. Each year it gets bigger and bigger, and the trees get taller or wider or thinner, you never know each year is its own year,” said Leuka.
The trees and the themes change each year, bringing people like Colleen Miller of Stow back year after year.
“It’s just a nice kickoff to the holiday season, kind of gets you in the mood for the festivities.”
Doors for the festival open at 10 a.m. Saturday, November 16th. It runs through November 24th. Admission is free and open to the public.